The new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School in Wakefield is scheduled to open for students in September of 2026.
The newly expanded school will allow its 12 sending communities, including Winthrop, to increase the number of students they send to the Voke from about 1,400 to 1,600 students.
At a recent town council meeting, Winthrop Northeast Voke School Committee member Rob O’Dwyer and Voke Superintendent David DiBarri provided an update on the building project, as well as other programs at the school.
“We have 61 students from Winthrop currently attending, which is up three from last year,” said O’Dwyer.
The school committee representative noted that the Voke provides the training for local students in the types of trades that can provide solid careers and cannot be outsourced.
DiBarri said that the plan is to increase enrollment at the new building by about 20 percent, but that the increase will be staggered over three years so that it does not place as much of a financial burden on Winthrop and the other sending communities.
As the work on the new school continues, DiBarri noted that one of the positive aspects of the trade school construction is that the students have been going on tours of the site since day one.
“They are actually seeing the school be built, so that is very exciting, and some of our other programs, the design digital program, is helping to design some of those interior displays that go in there,” said DiBarri. “There have been a lot of great opportunities to have that building go up.”
The larger building will allow the Voke to add four new programs, including medical assisting, marketing, biotech, and construction craft labor.
Several councilors asked about the application process for the school, as well as how many Winthrop students apply.
DiBarri noted the state now dictates a lottery process for bringing in new students. He said that one of the most challenging aspects at the vocational school is that there are more applicants than spaces available.
“There is a short waitlist in Winthrop, not like some of the other cities and towns,” said DiBarri.
He said there are typically about a half dozen students from Winthrop who are on the wait list.
Districtwide last year, DiBarri said there were about 1,300 applicants for 350 spots.
“When I started at Northeast as a teacher, we were happy to get just enough applications to fill the seats,” he said. “As it was growing, we’re really proud of those numbers that people can see the benefit, but when you talk to the parents, and especially for me, the toughest is when you get the phone calls from the grandparents after students don’t get accepted, especially from some of the inner city towns – you just want to help everybody and you wish everybody could get accepted.”
The district is working on some new initiatives to help ease that burden, including a potential program where students would go to their home district high school in the morning and then go to the Voke for the vocational programs in the afternoons, DiBarri said.
The building project is currently on schedule and under budget, DiBarri said, although he said there wasn’t a definite figure yet for how far under budget. He said the district has been able to apply for and receive a number of grants to help with the construction costs.
Once the new school is complete, the current school will be demolished and a new multi-purpose field built on the property.